My son had been begging me for weeks to reward him for doing something good. He had been doing well in school, and I wanted to reward him for his hard work.
I decided to give him a small gift: a nerf gun. I had seen this particular nerf gun in the store and thought it would be perfect for him.
He was so excited when he opened the package and saw the nerf gun. He immediately started playing with it, and I saw the joy on his face. I was so proud of him and happy that I was able to make him so happy.
Starts to expect a reward for doing good each time
However, it wasn’t long before I started to regret my decision. He started to expect a reward every time he did something good.
He expected a reward for doing his chores, for getting good grades, and even for just behaving. I tried to explain to him that rewards weren’t always necessary and that sometimes, doing something good was reward enough.
But he didn’t seem to understand.
He kept asking for rewards, and I kept giving in. I felt like I was teaching him the wrong lesson. I was encouraging him to do things for the reward, rather than for doing what was right.
I finally realized that I needed to put an end to this cycle. I decided to no longer reward him for doing something good.
I explained to him why I was doing this and that I wanted him to do things because it was the right thing to do, not because he wanted a reward.
Son got upset and did not understand
My son didn’t understand. He was upset that he was no longer getting the rewards he was used to.
I was so disappointed in myself. I had thought that I had taught my son a valuable lesson that doing something good means you would get something good somewhere in return, but it seemed like I had only taught him to expect rewards.